


Who We Are

by ethr33gee



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, a what if AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-08-24 20:33:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16647302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ethr33gee/pseuds/ethr33gee
Summary: Hakoda had left with the men of the tribe to go fight in the war that took much from them. It will take even more by the time it is over, Katara is to learn as she's left behind with the other women of the tribe. And the discovery of the Avatar long thought lost has her and her grandmother traveling all over the world to get him ready for the fight of their lives. She can only hope he learns the elements before the comet comes to rain down fire upon them all.





	1. The Boy in the Iceberg

**Author's Note:**

> So in this world, Sokka left with the men of the tribe and this is the effect it left on the rest of the tribe.

Katara was following the trail of a particularly pesky tiger seal, annoyed at herself and the world. The tiger seal had taken advantage of the one second she had her back turned and had stolen the drying meat she had left over a small flame. She only had herself to blame, as it was her duty to watch out for predators, and now here she was, several miles from the huts, trying to track a single tiger seal for three strips of meat. But ever since all the men had left to fight in the war, they needed every scrap of food they could to survive.

 

Katara and some of the other women had to learn how to hunt, track, and build in the seven years since the Tribe men took off. If it weren’t for her Gran Gran keeping them together, the village of only women and small children would have died by now. Luckily, some hunting scrolls and building equipment were left behind, all that was left was to learn. Trial and error got them very far, but Katara still had no one around to teach her the most important thing to her. How to bend.

 

As the only and last Waterbender in the South, Katara was alone in how to use and work her bending. Mostly it was a whole lot of nothing in the way of attacks, but Gran Gran did give her some healing scrolls that helped shape Katara’s bending. She refused to explain where she got them from, much to Katara’s annoyance, but it helped greatly when it came to injuries. Something as simple as a cut could turn deadly as there were few and far between shrubs of greenery on the ice. Even with moving several times over the years, what little plants they could find quickly disappeared no matter how careful they were to not overpluck.

 

A growl from an animal cut off her own growl of frustration. Hopefully she had found the devil bastard who dared to steal their food. She brushes stray hair back into her parka hood and takes a calming breath. It wouldn’t do to come all this way only to lose her life to a stupid mistake. The growl came back, followed by two more growl sounds and Katara peeks over the ridge to see three tiger seals basking in the noon sun, one had grease stains around its mouth that made her scowl. That was supposed to be for the feast tonight.

 

She shuffles a little on the ice, her fingers digging into the spear in her hands. If she skinned even one of them fast enough to get the meat drying in the next hour, there would be enough left for the coming weeks when the sun would leave them in total darkness.

 

Preparing her plan of attack, the sudden changing winds pushed the odds in the tiger seals favor as they caught onto her scent. She was no longer upwind of them, but no matter, she could still catch the slowest of them if she was fast enough. She quickly launched herself over the icy ledge, and ran at them as if her life depended on it.

 

Two immediately broke for the waters edge, but one tried to take cover in the snow pile next to it. Katara thrust her spear straight down, the snow bleeding red, and the fin peeking out stopping in its struggle. She had a second of victory before a loud crack rang out, only her strong grip on the spear shaft saved her from spilling into the freezing water below.

 

Katara looked around her and cursed softly. She had accidentally wandered into the outer shelf, where the glacier beneath them gave way to the oceans pull. The chunk of ice beneath her started off slow, but soon it got caught in a current and all thoughts of food left her as she clung as hard as she could to the spear shaft, the only thing keeping her from being killed. This was the deadly force of the Iceberg Maker, the swift current that churned the ice chunks together until they snapped into deadly weapons.

 

As the ice beneath her crashed into another, her footing was lost and she was thrown against the tiger seals carcass, her hands scrambling for purchase, but her gloves preventing a gripping chance. She quickly bit at one of her gloves, her free hand clawing at anything to hold onto, her skin simultaneously freezing and burning at the biting wind and deadly temperature.

 

When it seemed as if the wild ride had stopped, Katara quickly jumps to her feet to take stock of where she was, but nothing looked familiar. Ice formed in her stomach as she realises that the village will have no idea where she went. It will be as if she had just vanished. There would be no body for them to mourn over. She kicked at the dead tiger seal in frustration, but that only broke the dam of all her anger that she pressed down over the years. Soon enough, kicking the tiger seal wasn’t helping, so she reached out with her bending and just let loose all she was feeling, every moment of anger, every doubt that played across her mind, every time she pushed down the need to cry, every time she missed her mother, her father, her brother, her old life before it was so cruelly taken from her. She poured out all she was feeling, her throat sore and raw from her emotions, the small ice section she was on moving in the waves of her own doing.

 

Another crack filled the air, but she was too far in her grieving to notice until the ice dropping from it made water crest over her. She stood there panting from exertion, too stunned to do anything but watch as the ice wall crumbled before her as some long forgotten iceberg bubbled to the surface. It had a strange glow to it, and the bands on it looked almost unnatural, as if someone had formed it into a round shape.

 

Katara left the dead tiger seal, her spear still imbedded in it, to investigate. As she got closer, she could just make out the outline of someone.

 

“Someone’s in there,” she whispered to herself, pulling out her dagger and running to the iceberg. She searches for a weak point, where the ice would be the thinnest, and smashes at it with her dagger hilt made of ancient whalebone.

 

Three minutes later she’s thrown from the iceberg when an air blast knocks into her. She quickly sheaths her dagger and goes to see if she could help the person trapped, wondering if they would even still be alive.

 

A large groan had her stop for a moment before curiosity overwhelmed her and she ran over the lip to see a small child dressed in orange, behind him was a great furry beast and she cautiously approached, wondering if the beast was awake enough to attack her. As she got closer she realised the boy in orange wasn’t dressed as thickly as he should’ve been and she quickly unplucked her outer-skirt from her parka and draped it over him, carelessly bending the water from it as she went.

 

The boy groaned just as she bent down to check his temperature, mostly an excuse to get a closer look at his odd arrow tattoos. He slowly opened his eyes and she was startled to see the gray color of them.  _ He must be an airbender _ , she thought, though she didn’t know enough about airbenders to know for certain where exactly he came from. He came alive as he took her in, mouth working but no words coming out.

 

“I’m sorry,” Katara says shaking her head.

 

He clears his throat, but she still has to lean in to hear him.

 

“Will you go penguin sledding with me?” He asks her, voice young and full of cheer. She pulls her head back to see him grinning widely and she thinks she misheard him.

 

“What?”

 

“Penguin sledding! Would you go with me?”

 

“Uh, sure, I guess,” she tells him, not really sure what to say to that. He smiles, sitting up, only to frown when he sees where he is.

 

“What’s going on?” He asks. Katara chuckles at that.

 

“I was hoping you could tell me. How did you get stuck in this iceberg? And how are you not frozen?” She asks him back, taking her still ungloved hand and pressing it into his cheek to check to make sure he was okay.

 

“I- Uh, I’m not sure,” he mumbles turning red.

 

“Are you okay? You don’t feel sleepy do you?” Katara asks as she checks him over, lifting her outer-skirt to look at her arms and legs. “And why aren’t you wearing any layers!? You’ll freeze to death out here!”

 

“Really? I’m fine, I think,” he says as he stands, still red in the face, his makeshift blanket falling to the ground. He dusts himself off before turning around and seeing the beast behind him. “Appa!” The beast lets out a huff of air but doesn’t move. The boy goes over to the beast and tries to pick up its eyelid, but when that gets him nowhere, he tries to lift the beasts head.

 

Katara looks on in horrified awe as the beast gruffs out and licks the boy with its massive tongue.

 

“Ha! You’re okay!” The boy says with glee, moving so the beast could stand, it towering over them as it stretches.

 

“What is it?” Katara asks lowly, trying not to draw attention to herself, wishing she had the foresight to grab her spear from the dead tiger seal.

 

“This is Appa, my flying bison,” he tells her gesturing to the creature.

 

“Right, okay,” Katara says with some disbelief, but she had heard stories of the air nomads long ago mastering flight. Maybe this is what those stories meant.

 

Appa makes a noise and the boy ducks just in time as the beast sneezes, its green snot flying over the boy and just past Katara herself.

 

“Sorry about that, I should have warned you,” the boy says petting Appa’s massive nose. “So, do you live around here?”

 

Katara is instantly on the defense despite her knowing this boy isn’t a threat. Even with that huge display of light that lit up the sky when the dome of the iceberg was cracked, she can tell he isn’t anything more than he seems.

 

“I-” Katara pauses before shaking her head, she shouldn’t be weary of him. “Oh, we haven’t introduced ourselves. I’m Katara.” She gestures to herself lamely, feeling awkward all of a sudden. It’s not like she had many opportunities to introduce herself, what with her living at the edge of the world and all that.

 

“I’m A- A-  _ Achoo _ !” Katara is unprepared for him to launch into the air, and can only look on in stunned silence as he falls gently back to the earth. “I’m Aang,” he picks up where he left off, sniffling a little.

 

“You just sneezed and flew ten feet in the air!” Katara exclaims. He was a bender! She’s never met another bender before!

 

“Really?” He asks looking up at the sky. “It felt higher than that.”

 

“You’re an airbender! I’ve never met an airbender before!” Katara has a million questions for him, all of them vying to be asked first.

 

“Sure am!” Aang says proudly.

 

Katara smiles at him, but then the position of the sun catches her eye and she curses in her head. She’s late for the festival. She quickly picks up her outer-skirt, attaching it to her parka without looking, before heading to where she left her spear and the tiger seal carcass.

 

“Aang, you wouldn’t mind giving me a ride back to my village, would you?” she asks as she walks over the lip of the iceberg.

 

“I’d love to!” Aang says as he follows her, Appa groaning behind him. “What’re you doing?”

 

“I left to go hunting,” she tells him, not explaining the details to him. She grunts as she lifts the spear from the ice, moving the snow aside to get a better look at the tiger seal. “Straight through the eye, not bad,” she comments to herself, before pulling a wrapped up hide used to bring kills home from her back. She knew the whole of the tiger seal wouldn’t fit in the hide, but it would help hold it while she walked.

 

“Oh,” Aang said faintly, but she was too busy struggling with the carcass to see him looking disturbed.

 

“There we are,” she pants out minutes later, fingers already numb from carrying the weight of the carcass. “Let’s go!” She was dreading the limb onto Appa, but to actually fly! That would be  _ amazing _ .

 

Aang helped her get onto Appa, but avoided touching the tiger seal as he did so. _Maybe he’s_ _squeamish about dead animals_ , Katara thought with a shrug. Some of the women in the village were as well, so they built and cooked and sewed instead of hunting.

 

“Okay first time flyers, hold on tight! Appa, yip-yip!” Aang says, once again cheerful. Katara watches eagerly as Appa’s tail flips downwards, striking the ground before launching into the air. Katara’s stomach swooshes down as they lift off, only to have it in her throat as Appa flops into the water, barely large enough that the water doesn’t splash on her. “Come on, Appa,” Aang coaxes. “Yip-yip!”

 

Katara crawls to the front where Aang’s on Appa’s head.

 

“The first part was fun,” she tells him, trying to soothe him and Aang stops whipping the reigns.

 

“Appa’s just a little tired,” he tells her with a small smile. “A little rest and he’ll be soaring through the sky. You’ll see.” Katara gives him a reassuring smile, and he returns it.

 

She moves to check on the tiger seal, but sees Aang still looking at her with a smile.

 

“Why are you smiling at me like that?” She asks uncomfortably. She hasn’t been around people she doesn’t know, so new interactions were weird for her. Was this something normal?

 

“Oh, I was smiling?” Aang asks back, smile still on his face. Katara guesses it just must be an Aang thing, seeing as how he was so cheerful.

 

“Do you mind if I dress this carcass down? I want to harvest as much as I can.”

 

Aang’s smile disappears and he bites his lip. “I- I guess,” he says with a shrug, which was good enough for her. She takes out her hunting knife in a compartment in her boot and gets to work, not minding the blood that dyes her parka and clothes, though she is careful of the blood that gets on Appa’s saddle.

 

\--

 

Much later than she’d like, Katara is done sorting out the tiger seal into various piles. She’s grateful she had the forethought to bring all her hunting supplies with her when she left, otherwise she’d have had to throw out the blubber and organs.

 

She’s also grateful to have enough control over water to wash the tiger seals intestines and her hands when she’s done. Aang was not looking too good the last time he peeked over at her, so she wants as little blood shown to him as possible. He was the only one who knew how to steer Appa.

 

“Hey,” Katara greets awkwardly as she sits down by Aang.

 

“Hey. What’cha thinkin’ about?” Aang asks as he sits up. Katara bites her lips before sighing. Might as well get this over with.

 

“I guess I was wondering, your being and airbender and all, if you had any idea what happened to the Avatar?”

 

“Oh, no, I didn’t know him,” Aang tells her and her face falls. “I mean, I knew people that knew him, but I didn’t. Sorry.” He smiles weakly at her and she hates to admit how upset she is at that. Mainly for her and not the world.

 

“Okay, just curious,” she says dejectedly before putting on a false mask of cheer. “Good night.”

 

“Good night,” Aang replies with a wider smile.


	2. Hostile Greetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to the circumstances, Aang learns about the war early and is understandably upset.

Katara had to admit that the airbender could sure sleep. His brow was knitted as if trapped in a nightmare, but had yet to wake to her prodding.

 

“Aang! Wake up!” She shouts, which finally seems to get through. He sits up with a gasp of air and she moves to steady him. “It’s okay, we’re in the village now! Come one, everyone’s waiting to meet you.”

 

While that was mostly true, seeing as how visitors were rare this far south, it wasn’t the total truth. A lot of the women had hardened in the seven years of relying on themselves and were not as trusting of new folks as they once were. Not that Katara could blame them, there were still scorch marks and ash driven snow spread across the tundra despite the last ship to have made it to their shores visited well over five years ago.

 

They had all lined up, some with spears and knives, all with the children behind them.

 

“Aang,” Katara directed once the boy stepped out of the igloo. “This is the entire village.” She waves her arm over the line of 13 women and five children. “Entire village, Aang.” She waves her arm in front of Aang, feeling proud of how she introduced them. It was short, sweet, and she knew the village wouldn’t hesitate to remind Aang who they were if he stayed here long enough.

 

Aang does a formal bow before shifting awkwardly. “Uh, why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?” He turns around comically as if to find snot stains on the back of his shirt.

 

“Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years,” Gran Gran says stepping forward. “We thought they were extinct, until my granddaughter found you.”

 

“Extinct?” Aang asks, shocked to hear of the plight of his people. Katara sensed this would be difficult for the boy to handle, seeing how young he was.

 

“Part of the Fire Nation’s first attacks was to eradicate the Air Nomads,” Gran Gran recites the history, but Aang just shakes his head in confusion.

 

“That doesn’t make any sense! I have friends all over the world, even in the Fire Nation! I’ve never seen any war!”

 

This statement shocks the village, those with spears now pointing the tips at Aang. Even Katara backs up from him at his words.  _ Friends _ in the  _ Fire Nation _ ! Who would’ve thought!

 

“Aang, do you have any idea what words like that will get you!?” Katara asks him, ignoring the whispered barks of  _ traitor!, spy!, kill him! _ coming from around them.

 

“What do you mean?” Aang asks looking lost. “Is this a trick of some kind?”

 

“Trick?” Katara asks him over shouts of him being called the trickster.

 

“Yeah, like, are you guys playing a trick on me? Because if you are, I don’t get the joke,” Aang says looking over them all, hands twisting together in his anxiety.

 

“It’s no joke, young one,” Gran Gran tells him, voice soft as she gestures for the warriors to lower their spears. “The Fire Nation has been waging war against the world for nearly one hundred years.”

 

“That’s impossible! I was just  _ in _ the Fire Nation and saw no evidence of war!”

 

“He  _ is _ a spy!” Hina hisses, spear coming right back up and pointing right at him.

 

“Hold on, Hina!” Katara shouts, her fear going to the back of her mind in the face of Aang’s clear distress. “Aang, do you know what those words mean?”

 

“What? Why are you asking me that? What’s wrong?”

 

“Dear child, how long were you in that iceberg?” Gran Gran asks him, coming over to lay a hand on his shoulder.

 

“I don’t know,” he says with uncertainty, taking in the scenery of angry faces around him. “A few days, maybe?”

 

Katara mulls over his words before gasping. “I think it was more like a  _ hundred years! _ ” She exclaims and Aang laughs at her.

 

“ _ What!? _ That’s impossible! Do I  _ look  _ a hundred-twelve-year-old man to you?” He asks gesturing to himself.

 

“Well, no,” Katara concedes but frowns at him as he refuses to see the truth. “But think about it! The war is a century old, but you have no knowledge of it. And the reason you don’t know about it is because, somehow, you were in the iceberg the whole time!”

 

“That’s impossible!” He shouts again, though he curls in on himself instead of lashing out. “I would know, wouldn’t I?” His voice breaks as dawning realisation breaks across his face before he slumps to the ground. “A hundred years,” he mumbles to himself. His shock and sadness has the warriors abandoning their spears, their mother instincts coming out as they see a small boy in distress.

 

At first he sniffles as the group comes around him to hug him, but soon it turns into him fully sobbing, clutching their parkas harshly at the force of his cries. His sobs had Katara thinking back to when she was a little girl and it had seemed like her world had ended, though in Aang’s case it was far more literal. 

 

Katara shuffles the children towards the learning centre, an igloo patched together with animal hide in one of their first ever experiments with building. The fact that it still stood today and was one of the largest and warmest places in the village was a point of pride. The other point was the small bathing circle surrounded entirely by hides, small holes in the roof to accommodate for light and smoke. Katara had managed to figure out enough of her bending in order to heat the water enough to create a crater in the ice, the large hide of a Mammoth-Hippo covering the crater, allowing a barrier between the cold ice and the water that filled the hole. There was small pouches interspersed throughout the hide to contain hot coals to warm the water, allowing them the small respite from the cold, something they didn’t take lightly.

 

When she had the children working sewing patterns, something they all detested no matter their skill, she left them to see what became of Aang. They had left the small huddle, Gran Gran stepping out of their personal igloo at the right time to beckon her over.

 

“The poor boy cried himself to sleep,” she told Katara as she entered.

 

Katara could see his small form on her bedding, her thick blanket pulled up past his shoulders, his brow furrowed, shoulders hunched.

 

“Hopefully it helps,” Katara replies, moving to the hearth and pouring the boiling water into two tea cups and handing one to Gran Gran with the tea leaves steeping in the bottom.

 

They sit in silence as both contemplate what this means for the future, not only of the village but of the world. 

 

“You’re thinking he could teach you bending,” Gran Gran interrupts Katara’s thoughts. In truth, Katara had thought that when she had found him, but now, sitting here, her only line of thought was  _ what happened to the Avatar? _

 

“Aang said he had friends who knew the Avatar,” Katara says instead of confirming or denying her grandmother’s words. They both know how bad a liar Katara was.

 

“Wanting the Avatar to teach you, very bold,” Gran Gran commented with a smirk.

 

Katara squawked. “That’s not what I meant!” She shouts, voice going squeaky, reminding her of Sokka.

 

“Oh?”

 

“I was thinking that, if Aang knew of the Avatar from a hundred years ago, then doesn’t that mean that his spirit has already passed down to the next element? Or what if the air nomad Avatar is still alive somewhere?”

 

Gran Gran set down her tea, grabbing a tea stalk from a nearby bowl to chew on, her go to method of hard thinking. Katara finished her tea as she watched her Gran Gran go from watching Aang to stroking her chin- something else that reminded her of Sokka, wanting to do whatever Father did in order to mimic being a man.

 

“What if indeed,” she says long after their conversation started. Katara had mended several shirts and was working on sharpening her favorite knife when Gran Gran spoke.

 

“Gran?” Katara asks, but then Aang started to stir and it ended the talk.

 

“How are you feeling?” Katara asks going over to him, she would heal him if he needed it.

 

“Fine, I guess,” Aang says, eyes low and voice raspy. She hands him a cup of water and places a hand on his forehead. He wasn’t feverish, which was good, just sad, which she could not heal.

 

“Well, when you’re feeling up to it, we’ll answer any questions you have,” Katara says with an encouraging smile. “I should get back to the drying meat.”

 

“I’ll stay with him,” Gran Gran offered from where she was sat, a brand new tea stalk in hand. Katara left before she was drawn into a conversation, having learned her lesson on when to leave her grandmother alone.

 

“Hina, how’re we looking?” Katara asks as she comes to the fire where the drying meat was. She sees that the tiger seal meat had been added to the pile and thanks bth Tui and La for the fortune of the extra meat.

 

“Just about done,” Hina says before her eyes harden. “Should we trust that boy?” Katara took her time to think over the question.

 

“I think so,” she says after a minute. “I don’t think he’s a Fire Nation spy or anything. He’s just a boy who lost his whole world.” Katara thinks over what to do with Aang once everyone settled down. They couldn’t turn him away, he had no home to go back to with his people long since dead. “Could we accept him into the tribe?”

 

Hina double takes in shock, mouth falling open before thinking it over.

 

“It’s true he has nowhere to go,” she says slowly, and Katara could tell it was painful for her to admit it. Hina was a strong warrior, one of the first women to come out of the fog of grief and learn how to move on without her husband. In truth, Katara felt like Hina was a better person without him, able to come into her own without him to stop her from doing the things she was best at. “And he is just a boy, younger than even you.”

 

“If we accept him, what would happen?” Lakata asks coming up to the fire.

 

“We would teach him our ways, school him about the war, and depend upon him to hunt just as we do the warriors,” Katara answered back easy enough, though she bit her lip as she thought back to his squeamishness over the tiger seal carcass. “Maybe not hunt,” she amends. “He could craft or build, whichever he happens to enjoys more.”

 

“A man who does not hunt?” Hina says incredulously. She shakes her head.

 

“Seven years ago every woman here couldn’t hunt,” Katara reminds them. “It’s not forbidden for women to hunt, nor is it said that men must.”

 

“That is true,” Lakata says before smiling wickedly. “But how will he provide for you when you’re older?” Katara blushes at that and frowns at both of them and their laughter.

 

“Who says I would marry him?”

 

“Oh, come now, little waterbender,” Hina says. “He is the only man around for miles who’s close enough in age to you. If you both stay here and grow up, it is only natural for you to marry him.”

 

“That doesn’t mean I  _ have _ to marry him!” Katara shouts in her embarrassment.

 

“Oh? Playing the field when there’s nothing  _ but  _ field?” Lakata asks with a giggle. Hina lets a hearty chuckle out at that, slapping her hands on her knees in her glee.

 

“Or do you already have your eyes set upon Yuna?” Hina asks as she recovers, Katara’s face reddening even more. “She is turning into a fine young warrior, isn’t she Lakata?”

 

“Indeed,” Lakata joins in, grin splitting her face. “And she seems to favor setting out on  _ long  _ hunts with our dear Katara here.”

 

“Just the two of you out there amongst the ice,” Hina suggests with an wag of her eyebrows. “Must get pretty lonely in the nights.”

 

Katara flushes even more at their insinuations and suggestions before stomping her foot, the ice beneath cracking slightly. “I don’t know why I bother having proper conversations with you two.”

 

“No, wait, come back!” Hina calls out as Katara  walks away.

 

“Yes, come back, little waterbender! Yuna has joined us!” Lakata adds, Hina laughing at that.

 

Katara just stomps away to the watchtower, ears and face as red as a Fire Nation soldiers armour. She hated when they teased her about adult stuff, especially when they brought Yuna into it. They always had to turn crude when Katara asked serious questions and it unnerved her and poor Yuna, who had only wanted to see her perform waterbending had to suffer the jokes and teases Hina and Lakata dished upon them.

 

Katara turned her face to the sea, the wind blowing in her face and soothing her red cheeks, making them red for another reason entirely. Despite having seen nothing approaching in the five years they had made this spot their home, Katara was glad to have this watchtower here. It was a nice place to retreat to when she wanted to be alone. As Gran Gran favoured a tea stalk, Katara favored this spot to think. Something about the view of the sea calmed her, her element calling her towards it, asking her to chase it over the horizon to see where it ended.

 

\--

 

When she grew too cold to stand there any longer, Katara made her way down to see Hina leading the children in hunting drills and admired the way the woman got the children to do what they were told. Not that the children were unruly and never followed direction, they just had the tendency to have tiny bladders and even tinier attention spans.

 

“Hey, Katara!” Aang called out and Katara went over to where he was.

 

“Hey, Aang, how are you?”

 

“Better, I think. More centered.”

 

“Good,” Katara says with a nod, looking him over to see him more calm. He was no longer hunched in on himself and Katara was glad of that. 

 

Aang opened his mouth as if to say something else, but then he spotted something behind her and Katara turned to see an otter-penguin, not an all too uncommon sight around here.

 

“Penguin!” Aang shouts before airbending his way to where the otter-penguin was, though the animal moved out of Aang’s path.

 

“He’s kidding, right?” Lakata asks from where she was hanging out the hide of the tiger seal, having seen Aang run after the animal.

 

Katara just shrugs, grabbing three small fish and following after Aang, hoping the nest of otter-penguins wasn’t too far off.

 

When she caught up she saw Aang amongst the nest trying to coax the otter-penguins to let him ride them.

 

“Aang,” She calls out to him as he lands in the snow, the otter-penguin he was after waddling away before he could catch it.

 

“I have a way with animals,” Aang says, voice distorted from his face being in a pile of snow.

 

Katara finds herself laughing at him, Aang using his airbending to lift himself up and clear the snow away.

 

“I’ll help you catch a penguin if you teach me waterbending,” Katara proposes, watching him get dragged along by an otter-penguin, undisturbed by the boy gripping his tail. Aang lets go and stands once more.

 

“Deal!” He agrees easily enough before scrunching his eyebrows in confusion. “Just one little problem,” he says, airbending himself to sit on a nearby piece of ice jutting out of the ground. “I’m an airbender, not a waterbender. Isn’t there someone in your tribe who can teach you?”

 

Katara shakes her head. “No, you’re looking at the  _ only _ waterbender in the whole South Pole.” She spreads her arms wide to complete the effect.

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Fire Nation raids killed all the others,” she tells him, eyes drifting downwards as her hand comes up to clutch her mothers necklace.

 

“This isn’t right,” he declares standing up to come beside her. “A waterbender needs to master water.” He pauses. “What about the North Pole? There’s another Water Tribe up there, right? Maybe they have waterbenders who could teach you.”

 

“Maybe,” Katara says, wondering if any of their waterbenders had survived their own Fire Nation raids. “But we haven’t had contact with out sister tribe in a long time. It’s not exactly ‘turn right at the second glacier’. It’s on the other side of the  _ world. _ ”

 

“But, you forget, I have a flying bison!” Aang says pointing to himself and smiling widely. “Appa and I can personally fly you to the North Pole, Katara. We’re going to find you a master!”

 

“That’s-” Katara starts in shocked enthusiasm before thinking it over. “I- I don’t know. I’ve never left home before.”

 

“Well, you think about it,” Aang tells her before bouncing on his toes. “But in the meantime, can you teach me to catch one of these penguins?”

 

A horn sounds behind them and Katara looks towards the village.

 

“I will first thing tomorrow,” Katara promises. “It’s an ancient and sacred art not to be taken lightly.” She almost lets her serious face slip at the gulp Aang gives her, before smiling at him and slipping a fish from her sleeve. “Observe, my young pupil.” She throws the fish to him.

 

Immediately, the otter-penguins flock to him. Aang laughs in glee as they crowd around him, pulling him down to get at the fish, whiskers tickling him and Katara remembers when she were younger when she and Sokka had gone out to race penguins.

 

When the fish had been eaten, Katara claps her hands together and shoos the penguins from Aang.

 

“We have to go now, but I promised to go penguin sledding with you and we’ll do that tomorrow after chores.” Katara holds a hand out for him, which he takes, face flushed with laughter.

 

“Aww! Why can’t we go now?”

 

“Tonight’s a festival,” She explains. “I can’t miss that as the granddaughter of the Chieftess.”

 

“Aww!” Aang says again, but submits to being dragged back to the village.

 

\--

 

The festival went off without a hitch despite Aang being thrown into the works. He may have declined the meat, claiming to be vegetarian, but that just meant more meat for the rest of them, raising him in the opinion of those warriors who loved their meat. Katara knew Sokka would love Aang for that alone and smiled at the thought.

 

Gran Gran claimed him at the end, all tribe members of age agreeing to it, warming Katara’s heart. Hina winked at her from her place across the fire and Katara smiled back, glad to see the warrior’s opinion changed. Aang, shocked at the acceptance, bowed deeply to them all and was in high spirits all through the rest of the night. He even showed off to them, flying around in the air and even grabbing a lantern to paint the night sky with nonsensical patterns to keep the children entertained.

 

Katara could see his sleeping form from where she laid next to her grandmother, nearer to the hearth as she was without a proper bed, having given hers up to Aang. She was slightly drunk from the small cup of wine Gran Gran had allowed her to have, and pleasantly sleepy.

  
_ Tomorrow, _ she thought.  _ Tomorrow I’m going to learn how to waterbend. _

**Author's Note:**

> look, i love the OCs i created here and wish that they could travel with katara and aang all over, but i know that won't be possible (too many people in one saddle and to write for, that would be a nightmare). BUT, if you like them too, with what little showtime i gave them, tell me about it and i'll see what i can do to make them pop up from time to time :)


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